DANCING KEEPS THIS 'FEVER' FROM BREAKING.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

Anyone who will cop to once owning a poster of ``Saturday Night Fever'' may remember the movie's one-line slogan ``Where do you go when the record is over?'' Well, in ``Saturday Night Fever: The Musical,'' which opened Tuesday at the Shubert Theater, when the music stops, you go directly to another dance number, quite often without too much thought about how or why you're going there. Were somebody to write a catch phrase on this poster, it might read ``You really should be dancing.''

Indeed, footwork is what the performers of the stage ``Fever'' - the production's national tour - do best. Which isn't surprising since director Arlene Phillips is a choreographer, not a storyteller. Working with better-than-average dancers and a technical team that re-creates a 1976 disco in all its hot neon and polyester glory, Phillips delivers a show that is high energy if not especially poignant. And of course the show will end with a frenzied disco encore, not the closing ballad ``How Deep Is Your Love?'' Apparently we all should be dancing.

Nostalgia time, certainly, but don't let the title mislead you. Nearly 25 years have passed since John Travolta and the age of disco rocketed onto the screen together, and - naturally - the product at the Shubert feels like a very different ``Fever.'' In Nan Knighton's adaptation, we're still watching Brooklyn paint store peon/disco king Tony Manero and friends try to find their respective places in the world. They just have to use stilted, obvious dialogue and some of the more famous Bee Gees tunes in the search. Not the greatest aids. Usually when the characters aren't singing or dancing, we wish they were.

Case in point: The scene is the Verrazano Narrows Bridge at the opening of Act 2. Having been replaced as Tony's partner in the upcoming dance contest, nitwitty neighborhood gal Annette (played by Aileen Quinn), now decides that she and Tony (Richard C. Blake) can still ``make it'' together. Reluctantly, Tony agrees until he learns that she has no birth control. Instead, Tony and his guy chums, the Faces, pull a stupid stunt on the bridge, terrifying Annette. That business concluded, everybody - including Annette - performs a version of ``Jive Talkin' '' that wouldn't be out of place in the industrial musical ``Stomp.'' Great dancing. Recognizable music. Forced unnecessary scene.

The mournful ballads are sung by characters, often at the highest point of emotional pitch. Icy Stephanie Mangano (Jeanine Meyers) - Tony's new girl who wants out of Brooklyn - belts out ``What Kind of Fool,'' Bobby C (Jim Ambler), the most timid of the Faces, does ``Tragedy'' and eternally stomped-on Annette sings ``If I Can't Have You'' after Tony dumps her. The context isn't always as screwy as the shoe-horn job they did with ABBA songs in ``Mamma Mia!'' - but then again, that show was deliberately campy.

With ``Fever,'' we're supposed to invest in wayward, virtue-seeking Tony. Saddled with a role that will forever be associated with someone else, Blake simultaneously pays tribute to Travolta and bends the part to his strengths. Front and center in every single musical number, and sporting the sharp duds (designed by Suzy Benzinger) and perfect hair, Blake owns the stage. Unlike some of his cast mates, he overdoes neither the machismo nor Tony's transformation. And, most important of all, he dances beautifully.

The scenes set in the disco Odyssey 2001 are easily Phillips' strength. A rising set of mirrors gives the audience an overhead and rear view of the dancers during ``You Should be Dancing.'' Andrew Bridge's lighting spills out from every crevice, and the mirrored disco ball is the size of a small planet. During the dance competition, the salsa tango performed by the Puerto Rican couple Cesar (Michael Balderamma) and Maria (Natalie Willes) is a knockout.

``Fever's'' aim is to blow you off your hinges, and occasionally it succeeds. When your characters use pickup lines like, ``You're foxier than Farrah,'' your musical spectacle quotient better be up to snuff.

``SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER''

Where: Shubert Theater, 2020 Avenue of the Stars, Century City.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday; through June 24. At Orange County Performing Arts Center June 26 to July 8.

Tickets: $40 to $70. Call [phone].

Our rating: Two and one half stars

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Photo:

Are you looking at me? The Brooklyn buddies of ``Saturday Night Fever'' fall in line outside the Odyssey 2001 disco.